Whereas

The State of Maine lies wholly between 66° and 71° west longitude and it is the only state in the Union thus situated.

Resolved

The State of Maine shall have its own time zone to be known as Maine Time, which shall be four and one-half hours west of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT -04:30)

Maine Time is now:

11:11 PM, Friday, September 5, 2008

Why Maine Time?

Standard time was established in 1883 in order to prevent the confusion that would result if every locality determined its local time by its own meridian. Twenty-four meridians were designated every 15° of longitude to create 24 international time zones.

The four meridians in the continental U.S. designated as the centers of its four time zones are: 75°, 90°, 105°, and 120° west of Greenwich, England. Each time zone extends 7½° on either side of its central meridian. For example, the Eastern Time Zone is from 67½° to 82½°

The State of Maine is situated between longitudes 66°W and 71°W — hugging the eastern boundary of the nominal time zone from 67½° to 82½°. Due to the westward shift of the Eastern Time Zone to include several midwestern states, Maine lies on the extreme eastern edge of the de facto Eastern Time Zone. Add to this the fact that Maine is the only US state occupying the longitudinal span between 66° and 71°, it is ideally situated for use of a half-hour local time — half way between Atlantic Time (the Canadian Maritime provinces) and Eastern Time (the eastern US to central Indiana — longitude 86°W).

The primary advantage of converting to Maine Time would be to gain an additional half hour of daylight at the end of the day. This would be a plus in the summer, given that Maine relies so heavily on the tourist trade. In the winter, the extra half hour of light at day’s end would be a welcome change from those 4:10pm December sunsets we have to deal with under Eastern Time.